That's very true. Most of the characters do embody at least some, if not many, traits of other houses. Harry has many Slytherin traits--resourcefulness, cleverness, and "a certain disregard for the rules," according to Dumbledore. But it's difficult for Harry to acknowledge that A.) He has these Slytherin traits and B.) These traits can be used for good rather than evil.

I think I have a hard time with the sorting system because of how the Slytherin house is portrayed in this book--as a predominantly cold, prejudiced, and mean-spirited house. The main characters are Draco who uses "any means (even a spiteful/malicious one) to achieve his end" and Snape, who uses his cunning to insult Harry. The Slytherin traits are shown in the extreme here. If I am to believe this a proper depiction of that house, I would imagine that placing students there would almost brand them to further develop these extremes.

Don't get me wrong, I think Slytherin is a great house. But, due to circumstances in this book, I have a hard time viewing it as a safe place for students during the start of the wizarding war.

I look forward to hearing that. I had forgotten which house Quirrel was from and had to look it up. It's very interesting...

In regards to Snape, even in the books when I first started reading them, I always thought there was more to Severus than met the eye. While I detested him in the first book, I grew to have a love-hate thing until it was revealed who he truly was. And that being brought to life in the movies by Alan Rickman was just phenominal—I will never be able to picture him as anyone else. The persona displayed was spot-on in my book, and knowing that Rickman knew who Snape was meant to be before the final book was even finish and published brought so much more depth and life to the character. (If it's not obvious, Snape has been and will remain among my top favorite characters lol.)

I agree! He is a wonderfully complex character. He's definitely a favorite for me as well.

But I do wish he could have put certain prejudices aside and treated Harry better in this work. But then his role would not have been as well-developed or interesting.

It was one of my most favorite days!

It's not illustrated but I'm American so getting a British version was special to me. ^^

To both of you, I noticed Hermione's personal preference towards getting sorted into Gryffindor instead of Ravenclaw on the first Hogwarts Express ride. It just goes to show how much choice the children do have based on their initial likes and dislikes of House reputations.

Re: Chapter 15 J.K. Rowling created such an immersive universe that I think 's guess is very logical. Intervening in the future/past/present is usually a big no-no for those who can "see" in many different stories. I think the centaurs were predicting the oncoming war and struggle between Voldemort's followers and everyone else.

I'm glad I had a warm croissant and honey green tea to tide me over while I reread. There are a lot more mentions of food and appetizing descriptions than I remembered. I now know what treacle and chipolatas are.

I spot-read that chapter and noticed that Firenze mentioned, "The planets have been wrongly read before now, even by centaurs. I hope this is one of those times." Your analysis makes a lot of sense. I wonder if book five would give any more insight into that, considering the role Firenze plays during that year. From what I recall, centaur predictions were always rather vague. Maybe their concept of "time" is different than that of wizards'.

I agree with poppet's analysis too: that the centaurs likely foresaw a war. I recall Firenze mentioning at some point that humans (wizards) are no more important than other creatures. I think it shows a lot of empathy on his part to assist Harry here, even though he would be reprimanded. Or maybe he realizes there are larger matters at stake.

That's a good point with Hermione. I wonder what caused her to be inclined toward Gryffindor?

I've noticed that a lot of British authors write about food in a delectable, almost surreal way (especially Rowling)!

It would be great to keep Book Club open over the break. It would give me enough time to catch up with this thread. c:

I can honestly say that my favourite part in the first book is when Fred and George bewitched snowballs to hit Quirrel in the back of his turban, thus inadvertently hitting Voldemort in the face. xD

I think Hermione likes Gryffindor best because the author does.

J.K. shares many traits with that particular character. By no means is Hermione a Mary Sue, but she is an admitted exaggeration of how Joanne was at age eleven.

I'd love to keep on with Book Club and finally get to roleplaying with Quidditch Club too over Hogwarts break if that's ok.

To both of you, I think food is so important to J.K. and Harry because they know what it's like to go without.

The Harry Potter series has great character development in general, as well as really nuanced characters. Their flaws make them believable and often unlikable imo.

Those are great points!

It's the little things like that that make the series so special. One of my favorite parts is the Christmas feast-- when Dumbledore swapped his wizard's hat for a flowered bonnet and Hagrid drunkenly gave McGonagal a kiss.

I agree that it would be nice for clubs to continue during break. We've only been reading this book for a couple weeks; I could certainly use some more time to catch up.

Well, here's a new observation from Chapter 15: Dumbledore was clear at the sorting feast that "the forest is forbidden to all pupils." I have a hard time understanding why the first years were assigned detention in the Forest, unless Professor McGonagall simply wasn't aware that Filch would take them there.

Also, why would Hagrid break the students up into two groups--one without an adult-- when he knows something evil is lurking in the woods?

Because plot line. xD

Honestly though, that always did bother me.

And I've been re-reading the series for awhile now and am on Book 5 but there are little things I hadn't noticed before that I'm noticing now and going "wait, what?"

That's true. There seem to be several plot holes that are hard to identify as a child reader.

I love re-reading now in attempts to catch scenes that aren't included in the movies. For me, it makes them that much more entertaining to rely on imagination to depict them.

I need to think about your first observation a bit more.

2. As for the second, I've often had a hard time distinguishing charms from transfiguration. Harrypotterwikia states that "a charm adds or changes properties of an object; it focuses on altering what the object does as opposed to what the object is." Flitwick added a property to the keys so that they would remain keys, with the added feature of flying. It does seem more like a McGonagall work, but maybe that's because Flitwick's character is not very developed.

With the chess-game, you're right. That should be considered a charms work as well since it changes the game's properties. I think the producers made a big show of "Chess is a logical sport; it should represent a Ravenclaw teacher!" But that's pretty lame, as chess is a rather universal hobby in the wizarding world; it's not just for those "witty Ravenclaws."

Edit 11-4

1. I've read some arguments about Dumbledore orchestrating a lot of Harry's adventures. It's possible that he did so: placing the mirror strategically for Harry to find, having the tasks be on a level where intelligent first years could complete them. I agree that most of the tasks were lacking. If the goal was to slow down and intruder, shouldn't they have a magical alert system that could tell teachers when someone broke through? Then, they could have interceded.